Million Dollar Troutstock

Over Labor Day weekend I went up to Mammoth with a few friends to fish in a million dollar trout fishing tournament. That's right, one milliion dollars. There were 500 tagged fish planted in 19 different lakes and you needed to catch a tagged fish in order to have a chance at the money. If you divide it out, the odds are not good at all as there is roughly 26 tagged fish per lake and some of those are caught before the tournament begins. In any case my tale begins on the second day of the tournament. We arrive at Lake George around 6:30am and I head to the right of the boat dock as I was told by my uncle to fish about 30 yards to the right. Unfortunately do to our late start that morning, that spot was taken, so I had to fish about 100 yards to the right. My first fish of the day was a whopping 4 inches long and caught on a nightcrawler. I think the nightcrawler was bigger than the fish. What the heck? I then switched to some lures and ended up catching about 4 more decent pan size trout, but I released them all. It was a good thing that I did to. Some lady starts to yell at me that a bear is coming. I turn around and say what? She said that a bear is coming over the hill. The area we were fishing was on the side of a mountain, so you had the shoreline and a steep grade. I climbed up the hill to look over some rocks and sure enough there is a black bear heading my way. I high tail it up the mountain and let the bear do its thing. Its looking for food and starts sniffing in my backpack. Thankfully I forgot my snickers bars in the car or else I wouldn't have a backpack anymore. The bear moves on to my right where Rob is, so I yell at him to get out of the way. Rob actually kept a fish and put in on a stringer. I watch the bear pull up the stringer to get his fish, but someone threw a rock and the bear lets the stringer go. A few of us yell to stop throwing rocks at the bear. All we need is an angry bear and then one of is a goner. I had my waders on, so swimming in the lake was not an option. I would have just drowned. You can't outrun a bear, so you just give him space and pray. Lord willing the bear moved on.  Two other people in our party were fishing the back of the lake and we could see the bear heading their way. They were trapped as there was a small path and a steep mountain and the lake. No where for them to go to get around the bear. They ended up staying there for a few hours before they could get out. In the meantime, they were yelling at a man with his wife and newborn to watch out as the bear was coming. The man was arrogant and said he was not afraid of any bear. Dumb move, plus this guy actually caught a tagged trout. Unfortunately for him, the bear came, scared the man, picked up his stringer and ate his tagged trout. The man was so mad he just left with his wife and baby. He also left his chair, baby bottle and some drinks. One of the guys in our group said he saw some 7 or 8lb trout in that guys spot along with a tagged trout. Once I heard that, I packed up my things. He also said the bear was still there. At that moment, I didn't care about the bear, just the opportunity to catch a tagged trout. I took the 15 minute hike to that spot and started fishing. No sign of the bear, so I was good. I did see what the bear had done to the soda cans. They were shredded by the big claws. It was crazy. Anyways, I fished that spot for two hours with no takers. I used almost everything in my tackle box. I then got frustrated and walked up to this ledge that was about 3 ft above the water with some brush in front of it. From there I could look down in the water and see the trout. I decided to fish from there. I saw a decent size fish swim by and moved my bait to that spot. Within a few seconds I feel a tap. I then set the hook and fish on. I had to keep my rod way out in front of me so my line would not get snagged in the brush. The fish came to the surface and I noticed a flash of green on its back. I then yelled, "Its tagged, its tagged!" My heart started pounding and I thought to myself  I can't lose this fish. How was I going to net this fish? I could not pull it out of the water due to the brush. My wife's cousin said to play the fish to the left and he could net it from shore. I had no room to move, but I knew if the fish went right in to the brush my line would snap. Therefore I could only do one thing and that was jump off the ledge thru the brush in to the water. Without hesistation I jump down in to the water and yell for the net. Thankfully the water was only a few feet where I landed, so it was roughly a 5 to 6 ft drop in total. I get the net from Joey and net the fish. Man, what a relief. I'm not sure if I have ever had such a big smile on my face with the exceptions of my wedding day and births of my boys. It might have been bigger than when my boys were born. In any case, I was pretty stoked. After a few minutes to gather my thoughts, I decide to take the fish to the check-in station for fear of the bear coming back and eating my fish.

The next day is the awards ceremony and out of 901 anglers only 21 tagged fish were caught. My younger cousin actually caught one too, so our family did quite well. The put the names of the 21 people in to a bin to draw the names out. The first persons name that was called would win a million bucks if his tagged trout number matched the predrawn number. If not, you would win a prize package. The first prize package was worth over $17k. My name was drawn fourth, so I had a chance to win $50k. I said a prayer, before I opened my envelope but no match. I ended up winning a prize package worth $2,400. All in all, it was very exciting and definitely worth the $25 entry fee. The event was taped and will be played on FSN next year to promote next years event. Check it out, I'll be on TV.

The Power of Prayer

God's Precious Gifts

Today I thought I'd talk about something other than fishing and golfing. Not something I have expertise in, but I'm learning every day and that is raising two boys. They are adorable to me of course, but they are also a handful at times. How much freedom do you give them to learn the hard way versus being overly protective. I don't have the answer. Just pray and trust in the Lord to grant you the wisdom to make the right decision when the time comes. Prayer, reading bible stories and just spending time playing the games your kids enjoy have the most long lasting impact on them. Ty just graduated preschool this week, which is mind blowing that he will be going to school everyday starting in the fall. They grow up so fast.  If I could, I would freeze time and keep them at this age forever. They are so innocent and don't have a care in the world. They lean on you for protection, wisdom, guidance and are just so darn adorable. I think I mentioned that before. Anyways, they are truly a precious gift from God and we as parents must do our best to lead them to Christ.

For those of you who don't know, my wife is pregnant again. Not planned, but another gift from God. At first I was very anxious and overwhelmed about it. How am I going to afford another baby, what I am going to do for an office as I work from home, and so on. All sinful thoughts, as I did not put my trust in God. He provides for all of our needs and it is just up to me to be in prayer and doing my best to meet those needs. I'm fine now and really looking forward to another precious gift.

Golf Heaven "Myrtle Beach, SC"

Well, I've been back from my first true golf vacation for almost two weeks now. I am fully recovered from the jetlag and lack of sleep. I played 7 rounds of golf over 4 days, basically two rounds each day and one more before my flight out. It is exhausting. Wake up at 5:30am to get ready, eat breakfast at 6am, head to the course by 6:30am. Hit balls, putt and off to the first tee. After finishing, take a shower at the clubhouse, get a quick bite to eat and head to the next course. You eventually finish the afternoon round close to 7:30 or 8:00pm. There were 16 guys all from Texas with the exception of me representing the west coast. 4 of the guys I knew from work, the others were friends of my boss.

I must say this, that if you like to golf, than you need to go to Myrtle Beach. It has over 120 courses there and is the total family vacation place. You have the beach, many miniiture golf courses and outlets for the wife and kids. Palm Springs is nice, but can't match the beauty of these courses. You also get to see some interesting creatures too like 5 different poisonous snakes, alligators, bears, deer, turtles, fish and birds. After seeing my first water moccasin, I made sure not go near any tall brush after my ball. Also, you need to keep your eyes and ears open near the water for the gators. We saw one by the shore one minute and then it was gone. I went near the pond looking for it, maybe not the brightest thing to do but I wanted a close up picture. Needless to say, no sighting, but I'm still alive. The only animal I didn't see was the bear, that the marshall had warned us about.

I also played pretty well consistent too, so all and all it was a great trip. I'm constantly reminded of the trip every time I put lotion on my peeling sunburned forearms.

Opening of the Trout Season

For those of you who like to fish or are wanna be fisherman, do I have a good story for you. I was up in the Eastern Sierras for the opening of the trout season as I have done for the past 4 years now. This year I knew was going to be special. I had a couple of spots lined up and where I thought the fishing would be the best and the Lord was gracious enough to comply. In 3 days of fishing over 100 fish caught and released. I also broke my personal best with a 7.5lb rainbow trout. I have never experienced fishing that good and I've caught 35 trout in one hour before, but they were on the smaller side. The ones on this trip were consistently in the 1.5lb to 3lb range. That is good size for trout.

I've had requests to plan a trip in August, where we would camp at the local campground in Bishop. If anyone is interested, let me know.